Two UCLA pro-Palestinian student groups were placed on interim suspension and are now under investigation after protesting at the house of a UC regent.
Chapters of two pro-Palestinian student groups at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) are facing disciplinary action after taking their fight against the ongoing Israeli–Hamas conflict to the house of a UC regent.
The UCLA Office of Student Conduct issued an interim suspension to the UCLA chapters of two registered student organizations, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine (GSJP), after pro-Palestinian protestors showed up at the home of University of California Regent Jonathan “Jay” Sures early Wednesday morning.
Sures is Jewish and serves as the vice chairman of United Talent Agency, a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills.
On Feb. 5, protestors tied to SJP and GSJP harassed Sures and members of his family at his Los Angeles home.
According to a letter to the UCLA community by Julio Frenk, who became UCLA chancellor in early January, protestors surrounded a car belonging to one of Sures’s family members and prevented it from moving. They pounded on drums, chanted, and held signs with threatening messages.
“Jonathan Sures you will pay, until you see your final day,” one sign read, according to Frenk’s letter. The protestors vandalized the Sures home by smearing red handprints on the exterior walls of the home. They also hung banners on the property’s hedges.
The school has been called upon by both the UCLA Graduate Student Association and the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council to divest itself from Israel.
In his statement, Frenk said: “No one should ever fear for their safety.
“Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work and live—much less thrive and flourish. This is true no matter what group you are a member of—or which identities you hold.”
UCLA’s office of student conduct is reviewing the student groups for potential violations of the school’s code of conduct. The chancellor said that if the reports are proven true, disciplinary action may follow.
“There is no place for violence in our Bruin community,” Frenk, who formerly served as Mexico’s secretary of health, stated.
“As a citizen of the world, I know that no one can promise a society free of violence. But as your chancellor, I can commit to you that whenever an act of violence is directed against any member of the university community, UCLA will not turn a blind eye. This is a responsibility I take most seriously.”
The student groups issued a joint statement on Feb. 13 claiming they were not violent.
“We reject Frenk’s accusations that student protesters have committed violence against the UCLA community,”
they said in an Instagram post.They argued that Frenk’s letter about the protest failed to describe any violence.
Further, the groups claimed: “Jonathan Sures is a millionaire UC regent who invests our university’s funds in war, occupation and genocide. He is not a member of our community.
“Framing advocacy as violence erases the real violence being actively perpetrated by weapons manufacturers and investors like UCLA.”
The Jewish Federation Los Angeles (JFEDLA) took to Instagram to commend Frenk for the university’s action to temporarily suspend the student groups and release a statement against such violence. “While passionate debate and divergent views are at the heart of campus discourse, there is no place for violence,” JFEDLA wrote.
“Targeting individuals in their private spaces is not activism—it is harassment.”
SJP and GSJP may challenge their interim suspensions.
“The Student Group may present information in support of the view that the Interim Suspension is unnecessary or that its conditions should be modified,” according to the Student Group Conduct Code. “The Assistant Vice Chancellor for Campus Life or designee is authorized to review the allegations that gave rise to the Interim Suspension and may lift the Interim Suspension or modify its conditions.”
A UCLA media relations personnel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
